HealthLeadersMedia.com - Health Governance Report

Does your governing board understand medical staff issues?

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:00:00 GMT

Do your hospital governing board members understand why peer review is such a contentious issue among physicians? Can they map out the credentialing process? Have they read the medical staff bylaws?

Simple Steps to Avoid Staff Burnout

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:57:00 GMT

What can healthcare organizations do to recognize burnout and help their staff members regain a sense of mission?

Joint Commission Issues Interim Staffing Effectiveness Standards

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:53:00 GMT

The Joint Commission recently announced the approval of its interim staffing effectiveness standards for 2010. The new staffing effectiveness standards will become effective July 1, 2010, and will remain in effect, as The Joint Commission continues to research the issues of staffing effectiveness.

Spell Out the Good and the Bad in Employee Assessments

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:51:00 GMT

Sound promotion policies include honest assessments of employees' standing.

Is Hospital Job Growth in the Cards in 2010?

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:47:00 GMT

Even within the worst economic climate since the Great Depression, 2009 was not such a bad year for job growth in the healthcare sector—which includes everything from hospitals to outpatient surgery centers to podiatrists' offices—when compared with the overall economy.

Health Governance Report, April 2010

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:33:00 GMT

HITECH, major settlements, EHRs, and more

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:11:00 GMT

The quality, efficiency, safety, and privacy of healthcarein the United States were front-page news in 2009.

Specific developments weren’t mere flashes in the pan; experts say the ripple effect will continue into 2010 with long-ranging effects for most. Let’s revisit the most significant events of 2009 and explore their potential effect in 2010.

The top 10 mobile app trends for 2010

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:08:00 GMT

Many CIOs had smartphones on the top of their 2009 wish list. The compact mobile devices combine online access to information with PDA functionality, making them perfect for on-the-go clinicians.

Hive marketing and social media

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:05:00 GMT

Social media is the supreme hive marketing instrument. Imagine a hive with bees buzzing all around it. Although it might not be apparent at first, the bees are all involved in a common effort: sustaining life by gathering pollen from flowers and making honey.

How ready are hospitals for meaningful use?

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:02:00 GMT

Both hospital and physician organizations have recently expressed concern about providers’ abilities to meet the requirements of meaningful use defined by CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator.

Health Governance Report, March 2010

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:57:00 GMT

This issue of HGR focuses on how hospital executives can assess their readiness for meaningful use, leverage the strongest new mobile applications on the market, and learn from the HIT happenings of 2009.

Leadership: Value vs. volume: Can we pay for quality?

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:51:00 GMT

The observation that American healthcare has a payment system that often rewards for the quantity of treatments—and rarely the quality—is hardly new.

However, with recent national healthcare reform efforts, a sense of urgency has begun to appear that establishing the value of quality healthcare eventually must trump generating more volume if the American healthcare system is to remain viable in the near future.

Nurses’ repetitive processes catch medication errors

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:49:00 GMT

Each year, medication errors are responsible for 7,000 patient deaths and cost the healthcare system $2 billion. Even more shocking, perhaps, is the knowledge that nearly 50% of potential medication errors are caught before making it to the patient. Of those potential errors, 87% are intercepted by nurses.

Patient safety: Decade after 'To Err Is Human': Are hospitals safer?

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:46:00 GMT

November 2009 marked the 10-year anniversary of the Institute of Medicine’s “To Err Is Human,” the first of its 11-volume Quality Chasm series on improving patient care and avoiding mistakes.

Since the landmark report, health providers have been chagrined by the revelation that they were killing “a jumbo jet” full of passengers every day, about 98,000 preventable deaths per year. And many of them reacted to the allegation by launching a broad spectrum of efforts to reduce medical mistakes.

But are we really better today at preventing mistakes and safeguarding our systems from causing harm than we were 10 years ago?

Health Governance Report, February 2010

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:44:00 GMT

Inside:

Decade after 'To Err Is Human': Are hospitals safer?

Nurses' repetitive processes catch medication errors

Patient experience: Four benefits and five priorities

Setting the record straight on mammographies

Value vs. volume: Can we pay for quality?

Initiative hopes to improve patient safety in public hospitals

Pilot program targets frequent ED visits

Safety: Hospital violence spurs renewed focus on security

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 20:09:00 GMT

Violence at Boston hospitals in late October 2009—including a fatal patient shooting—proves that healthcare security is an unpredictable business.

Health Governance Report, January 2010

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 20:05:00 GMT

This issue of HGR focuses on how hospitals can protect themselves from threats such as technology failure, hospital violence, patient safety breaches, and more.

State of emergency

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:38:00 GMT

For most hospitals, the majority of admissions—as high as 60% in some cases—come in through the ED. And in the current economic downturn, many hospitals’ financial and operational struggles have entered the organization through the same path.

Patient advisory boards engage patients in their own care

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:36:00 GMT

In today’s culture, many hospitals are increasing their focus on patient-centered care—involving patients in their own care decisions to improve outcomes. One route facilities often choose is creating a patient advisory board or committee.

The patient of the future

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:34:00 GMT

A patient enters the waiting room and is greeted by her personal navigator, who hands her a tablet-sized computer preloaded with her personal demographic information and health records. She answers a series of questions, and the computer compiles a list of possible diagnoses for her physician.